Iran’s president tells UN Israel’s ‘terrorism in Lebanon cannot go unanswered’
Hezbollah has reportedly asked Tehran to attack Israel as fighting intensifies, but regime unwilling to do so while Pezeshkian is in New York for General Assembly
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, in an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, demanded a global response to Israel’s assault on the Hezbollah terror group.
“Israel’s state terrorism in Lebanon cannot go unanswered,” Pezeshkian said. “Responsibility for all consequences will be borne by those governments who have thwarted all global efforts to end this horrific catastrophe.”
Pezeeshlian also accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, where he said it had been defeated, and of backing terrorist groups such as ISIS.
The Iranian president’s first address to the General Assembly came a day after he said that in a CNN interview that Hezbollah “cannot stand alone” against Israel and called on the international community to “not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza,” in response to a question on whether Iran would use its influence with Hezbollah to urge restraint.
Shortly before Pezeshkian spoke at the UN General Assembly, a US media report said Hezbollah asked its Iranian patrons to attack Israel as the Israel Defense Forces increased pressure on the Lebanese terror group over the past week, but so far, Tehran has rebuffed the request.
Two Israeli officials cited by the Axios news site said that the Iranians told Hezbollah that “the timing isn’t right” for it to intervene because Pezeshkian is in New York for the UNGA.
Hezbollah asked the Iranians to attack as part of their response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran two months ago, according to the officials and an unnamed Western diplomat.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the assassination of Haniyeh, who was killed in a guesthouse in Tehran hours after attending the swearing-in ceremony for the Pezeshkian. Nevertheless, Iran and Hamas have both blamed Jerusalem and vowed to retaliate.
The sources said that the “Iranians expressed reservation about joining the fight against Israel now and didn’t give a positive response.”
Furthermore, a senior Israeli security source told Axios that the Israel Defense Forces has received instructions from the security cabinet to avoid carrying out actions that would give Tehran a reason to join the fight.
Tehran carried out an unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel in April after several members of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in an Iranian consular building in Damascus in a strike blamed on Israel.
Iran provides financial and military backing to Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, and a number of other terror groups in Iraq and Syria that have been attacking Israel on a regular basis since the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught started the war in Gaza.
‘Israel has been defeated in Gaza’
In his UN General Assembly address, Pezeshkian lashed out at Israel over the Gaza war, saying “the world has witnessed the true nature of the Israeli regime” over the past year.
“It has witnessed how the regime carries out atrocities in Gaza, and how in 11 months it has murdered in cold blood over 41,000 innocent people, mostly women and children,” Pezeshkian said, citing unverified Hamas figures that make no differentiation between civilians and combatants.
“Its leaders label this genocide — the killing of children, war crimes and state terrorism — as legitimate self-defense. They label hospitals, kindergartens and schools as legitimate military targets. They label the freedom-loving and brave people around the world who protest against their genocide as antisemitic. They label oppressed people who have stood up against seven decades of occupation and humiliation as terrorists,” he went on.
“It is Israel that has assassinated our scientists, diplomats and even guests on our soil,” the Iranian president said, apparently referring to Haniyeh, who was assassinated while visiting Tehran for Pezeshkian’s inauguration. Pezeshkian claimed, without proof that Israel “supported — both covertly and overtly — terrorist groups like ISIS.”
“Israel has been defeated in Gaza, and no amount of barbaric violence can restore its myth of invincibility,” he further asserted.
He called for a ceasefire in Gaza — without mentioning the hostages held by Hamas — and “an end to the desperate barbarism of Israel in Lebanon before it engulfs the region and the world.”
Pezeshkian also sought to make the case for the Western world to shift its approach to the Islamic Republic, saying his country was “prepared to foster meaningful economic, social, political and security partnerships with global powers and its neighbors based on equal footing.”
“The appropriate response to this message from Iran is not to impose more sanctions, but to fulfill existing obligations to remove sanctions benefiting the Iranian people, hence laying the foundations for more constructive agreements,” he said.
He spoke positively about the 2015 nuclear agreement his country inked with the US and other world powers.
“Iran agreed to the highest, unprecedented level of nuclear oversight in return for recognition of our rights and the lifting of sanctions,” he said, blasting former US president Donald Trump’s 2018 unilateral withdrawal from the agreement and implementation of major sanctions against Tehran.
“The goal was to securitize Iran, which instead leads to insecurity for all the policies of the US,” Pezeshkian claimed.
“We are ready to engage with JCPOA participants. If JCPOA commitments are implemented fully and in good faith, dialogue on other issues can follow,” he adds, using the initials for the normal name of the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Pezeshkian then addressed his remarks to the American people.
“It is not Iran that has established military bases along your borders… imposed sanctions on your country, obstructed your trade relations with the world… prevents you from accessing medicine… restricted access to the global banking and financial system… targeted your military leaders. Rather, it is the United States that assassinated Iran’s most revered military commander at the Baghdad airport,” he said, referring to former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps top commander Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in 2020.
AFP contributed to this report.
